Forms of Oligarchy - Solaris Rss

This is a discussion on Forms of Oligarchy - Solaris Rss ; After I looked into SpiralDynamics I am very sensitive now to any of those evolutionary patterns. I just recently found some in a very interestingarticle from SimonJohnson, a professorat MIT?s Sloan School of Management about the economic crisis,it's causes and ...

Forms of Oligarchy

After I looked into SpiralDynamics I am very sensitive now to any of those evolutionary patterns. I just recently found some in a very interestingarticle from SimonJohnson, a professorat MIT?s Sloan School of Management about the economic crisis,it's causes and how to solve it.

He argues that the U.S.economic recovery will fail unless the "financial oligarchy",responsible for the crisis in the first place is broken. Thegovernment, captured by the finance industry is according to Johnson,running out of time needed to prevent a true depression. A highlyadvanced country like the US also has the most advanced oligarchy andwith this statement Johnson describes three stades of politicalsystems, a primitive one in which power is transmitted throughviolence, e.g. military coups; a less primitive system that is foundin emerging markets where power is transmitted via money, e.g. bribesand finally a system in which the

?financialindustry gained political power by amassing a kind of culturalcapital?a belief system. Once, perhaps, what was good for GeneralMotors was good for the country. Over the past decade, the attitudetook hold that what was good for Wall Street was good for thecountry. The banking-and-securities industry has become one of thetop contributors to political campaigns, but at the peak of itsinfluence, it did not have to buy favors the way, for example, thetobacco companies or military contractors might have to. Instead, itbenefited from the fact that Washington insiders already believedthat large financial institutions and free-flowing capital marketswere crucial to America?s position in the world.?

In Spiral Dynamics this pattern would belong to the achievist theme (ORGANGE) in which everything is uniquely focussed around prosperity and success, characterizing "a society that celebrates the idea of making money" to use Johnson's words. Looks like this is not enough for our well being in the future and although Johnson's overall position seems radical including the solution he suggests at the end of the article I believe it deserves serious consideration...